Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Just wanted to say some more about the flooding of Venice with high water (aqua alta). There is a building project on going in the lagoon that hopes to correct some of the high water. It is called MOSE. There is an interesting video on YouTube that explains some of this massive project. The Corps of Engineers here in the U.S. would love to be doing this project (my former employer)! And here is a piece from Wikipedia:

The MOSE Project (acronym for Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico — in English, Experimental Electromechanical Module) is a project intended to protect the city of Venice, Italy from floods. The project is an integrated defence system consisting of rows of mobile gates able to isolate the Venetian Lagoon from the Adriatic Sea when the tide reaches above an established level (110 cm) and up to a maximum of 3 m. Together with other complementary measures such as coastal reinforcement, the raising of quaysides and paving and improvement of the lagoon environment, these barriers will protect the city of Venice from extreme events such as the floods and from morphological degradation. Work on the project has been under way since 2003 at the three lagoon inlets of Lido, Malamocco and Chioggia, the gaps connecting the lagoon with the sea and through which the tide ebbs and flows. The name MOSE is also a play on the Italian name for Moses, Mosè. The project is being executed by engineers at FIAT.[citation needed] The MOSE project continues to encounter vociferous, well-organised, well-informed opposition from many sides.